S.J. food inspectors hand out 531 major violations

Saturday

Oct 27, 2007 at 12:02 AMOct 27, 2007 at 7:30 AM

STOCKTON - Rodents in San Joaquin County last year defecated in restaurants and school cafeterias, cockroaches lived and died in kitchens and bars, mold dwelled in soda dispensers, and some chefs failed to wash their hands with soap, according to a Record review of county health inspection reports.

David Siders

STOCKTON - Rodents in San Joaquin County last year defecated in restaurants and school cafeterias, cockroaches lived and died in kitchens and bars, mold dwelled in soda dispensers, and some chefs failed to wash their hands with soap, according to a Record review of county health inspection reports.

Inspectors found a dead rat stuck to a glue board in an oven at the Best Western Stockton Inn and bat droppings in a Stockton Unified School District warehouse, records stated. At the County Jail, an inspector reported ground beef cooking on a gas-powered stove in a storage room.

And at Safeway Food & Drug on Pacific Avenue, inspectors in November found dirty knives in the bakery and mildew in an ice maker at the Starbucks in the store, records stated.

"That's kind of gross," said Chinh Pham, who was with her boyfriend there Thursday.

In the past fiscal year, from July 1, 2006, to June 30, county health inspectors noted one or more major state health code violations - those that pose an imminent risk to public health - at 531 restaurants and other food facilities in the area -about one in every six facilities, according to records provided by the county Environmental Health Department.

Ninety-eight percent of those facilities have since corrected their violation or violations, said Jeff Carruesco, chief of the agency's food unit.

Among the minor and major violations inspectors reported last year:

» Rodent droppings in school cafeterias - Stockton's McKinley Elementary School and Lodi's Wagner-Holt Elementary School, for example - and in restaurants, including the Best Western Stockton Inn and Lodi's Lyon's Restaurant. Droppings were found at the Big Value Market on Mariposa Road - inspectors called it a "heavy vermin infestation" - at the Elkhorn Country Club and in a warehouse at the County Jail.

» A sushi chef at Stockton's Shogun restaurant who washed his or her hands with water, but not soap. The restaurant also used the same cutting board for both cooked and raw meat, and inspectors found the "entire kitchen unsanitary," according to a report.

» Employees in the cafeteria at Stockton's St. Mary's High School who did not wash their hands.

In most cases, serious issues were addressed immediately and violations were corrected within two weeks, in time for a follow-up inspection, officials said.

"It doesn't take much to get a major violation," Carruesco said.

The department's Laurie Cotulla said people should not fear restaurants at which major violations were reported. Often, "it's a one-time thing," she said.

From July 1, 2006, to Sept. 30, 2007, violations persisted at 11 facilities, the owners of which were summoned to the Health Department to plead for their permits to not be suspended or revoked, officials said. All 11 were put on probation for one year, and most violations have since been corrected, officials said.

Among those restaurants was Stockton Joe's Fine Dining & Cocktail Lounge, which had violated food temperature regulations, according to inspection reports.

The restaurant is a landmark for the business-lunch crowd. (It stocks a special brand of bottled water for developer Alex Spanos and his family). In the kitchen on Oct. 18, there was cabbage for the Thursday special, corned-beef cabbage and Carruesco on a follow-up visit.

He poked a thermometer into a number of foods, the temperatures of which were OK. Two cockroaches - one of a type he'd never before seen - were not.

Restaurant owner Michael Varni, it turned out, did not share Carruesco's enthusiasm for the roach's lack of color. He destroyed it.

The two cockroaches did not constitute an infestation and therefore are a minor, not a major, state health code violation. Still, Varni appealed to Carruesco: "That's the first two we've seen in - I'm telling you. It's been a long time."

He fumed about the company he pays for pest control and told Carruesco, "We're busting our asses."

Neither patrons of Safeway nor of Stockton Joe's said a dirty knife or a cockroach would put them off. Carruesco and his family ate at Stockton Joe's in August. The Spanos organization and Douglass Wilhoit, head of the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce, said they still will, too.

"Stuff happens," Wilhoit said. "Bugs are bugs are bugs. ... They're going to find a way to get in."

The county food unit is not principally a punitive one, Carruesco said. Inspections are to protect public health, largely by helping restaurateurs find and repair conditions that could be unsafe, he said. Some places are spotless.

Of those that reportedly were not, at least during one surprise inspection last year:

» An attorney for Jason Kimball, who runs the cafeteria at St. Mary's High School, said the inspector who visited had a "personality conflict" with Kimball and that the report was erroneous. Employees there do wash their hands, said the attorney, Patrick Riddle. In a later inspection, no violations were reported.

» Representatives of the Stockton Unified School District, Big Value Market, Elkhorn Country Club and the County Jail did not return calls for comment. All had later inspections in which no major violations were reported.

» Representatives of the Best Western Stockton Inn, Shogun, Lodi Unified School District, Stockton Golf & Country Club, Lyon's, Stockton Joe's, Stockton Ballpark and RAW mostly said inspectors, though sometimes picky, were fair, and the violations justly noted. A Safeway spokeswoman said, "We're pretty proud of our record since then." Safeway and the other facilities all had later inspections in which no major violations were reported.

Typical of restaurateurs was Ed Mack, who manages the food service at Stockton Ballpark. He said he was "nitpicked on a couple of things, but that's their job."

Varni said, "No matter what, they're going to find something." But he also said, "What he (Carruesco) says goes, and what they say is right."

Carruesco returned to Stockton Joe's on Friday.

The restaurant had its pest control company in three times this week, he said. He said he saw three dying roaches and that, "I'm satisfied with what efforts, or what steps they're taking."

Generally, he said, the restaurant looked good.

Contact reporter David Siders at (209) 943-8580 or dsiders@recordnet.com.

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